Description - Chad and Josh follow the flooded tunnel's path to a mysterious stone structure filled with Aztec artifacts and evidence of an ancient battle to protect the gold. Eric uncovers a fault line from a meteorite impact which leads to an entrance underground.
I admit, I have more love for this show than The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch. The family and close-knit team of friends and colleagues, the rough and rugged area, the purpose of fighting for a dream.... Just love the Ollingers, Charlie, and the whole damn team!
Chad and Josh headed out along the path of what is possibly a continous underground cavern. Josh did some meal detecting around an interesting stone structure. They began to find arrowheads. One was obsidian, not a native stone there in the Uintas. Josh and Chad began to ponder that all the arrowheads were for guarding, as it was not a hunting ground with resources.
In the Hideout, they gathered and Erik told the team about the uranium he found from the drilling sample. Erik suggested they will need to make some ventilation allowances for drilling there. James considered that the Aztecs might have prized uranium and meteorites. So many ancient sites of worship and praise were areas of meteorite strikes. Erik made the decision to go through all samples they had over the years there to see if any traces of uranium are in them.
They decided to bring in an expert, Chris Bartel, on the arrowheads being found. The obsidian arrowhead was made from volcanic glass, not something around there in Uintas. The Aztecs did use it. It could have been acquired trading among tribes, or it was an Aztec item. Chris determined the arrowhead was a couple thousand years old. It appeared the arrowheads were made by same people/same time period (3000-7000 years ago).
As the Aztecs apparently said their original homeland was in that local area, the age of these might make sense. Otherwise, they were not part of the Montezuma's haul several hundred years ago.
James and Josh set up a search grid for all these artifacts they found near an area they now call "the armory." Josh utilized a metal detetor and James did a dig. They found a musket ball (typically 16th Century). The team soon realizes that there was something worth dying for, something worth battling for to have musket balls and arrows. They found another musket ball that had not been fired. One musket ball was flattened, which meant it had been fired and hit something.
Erik gathered samples around the ranch to see if uranium was present everywhere. Erik found bits of yellow in a sample. Uranium was found at the energy zone and open pit mine. Erik wonders if urainium was at both locations because of a meteorite location and fault line. Thi should bode well for finding an opening to the caverns. Erik decides to follow the fault line toward the open pit mine, looking for potential meteorite crash sites.
Erik took Chad out to use a metal detector looking for metals associated with a meteorite. They found a bit of iron near a wash at the bottom of hills where over thousands of years, heavy metals would work their way down to the low spot. Erik found a shatter cone that is the result of a meteorite strike.
Roger Blumquist, historian, was brought in to look at the musket balls and arrowheads. They hope that he can shed light on what was going on. The condition of the muske balls seemed to show they were dropped urgently before there was time to shoot. These also matched Mormons, as well as Spanish armaments. As it appeared to be pure lead, it was a valuable commodity and also an older one. Ultimately, a hasty retreat might be a good explanation.
It is always a pleasure to watch these guys. The thing is, I respect their search, the way they go about it, the minds they bring on-board, but also I find myself rooting for them like a home team.
Next week - the biggest project on the ranch yet and it's looking promising after they find an opening with blind frogs coming out.
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